January 2018

We had a good start to 2018, the reserve is recovering very well after the fire with many unusual plants and flowers to be discovered and admired.There is now a spiffy new welcoming sign at the entrance circle and the ranch poles had a fresh coat of paint, looking great!We asked for a long time to have the public toilets painted and, thanks to Mr. Speelman, they look as new, unbelievable.The rest of the staff has taken extra care with the area between the two traffic circles, everything is mown and trimmed, well done.We had three people coming in for a few hours during the holiday to give us a hand with weeding and hacking.On Wednesday we marked the Link Trail again as it was getting very indistinct with the regrowth. The Wednesday after that we opened up a big section again that was rather overgrown, luckily it was drizzling so nice and cool to do that!

It was so good to meet up one weekend with a party of about 40 walkers who did the entire trail who were so appreciative of our efforts.The Wednesday after that the “Wednesday walkers” which was another group of about 40 people did also the whole circle and enjoyed a braai afterwards at the braai place.We have quite a task at hand to control all the wattle, rooikrans and other aliens that have come up. Rob, Cathy, Keith, Neil and Rudi have at different times been spraying various patches of aliens where they are like a big carpet. We also have been pulling out aliens at various areas but there is still so..o much to be done and they are growing faster than any other plant!!

In mean time we have had a donation of an old wendy house which Rudi has partly taken apart and is building a bird hide from adding a viewing section, window, different door, different roof etc. while Ellie is painting it.

We found electricity poles that were replaced as they were partly burned and we are looking at using them for a bridge as the bird hide is planned to go into the Lily pond.

In the Tilapia dam the Tilapia fish have been breeding so there is a good supply again for the birds.

Rob has reported a number of different duck on the lily pond which is great.

Our planted trees are looking good thanks to Jenny’s watering and us cleaning around them.

We had for the first time seeds on the Sterculia alexandri tree and have put them in seed trays. Also the Kigelia tree has a seed pod on for the first time.

The landslide in the forest needs to seen to as so many aliens have come up there as well as in the section of the reserve on the otherside of the river the alien plants are getting big…

Our water supply had two holes in on the neighbours property so they eventually reported it. With the drought we straight away went to fix it!

Growing of plants for the nursery and planting out is an ongoing job though the weeds are taking over after the holidays!!